


the difference a week makes

by orphan_account



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Implied Pairing, M/M, Sister!Vanessa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-21 08:12:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/897980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Vanessa Gottlieb was 30 years old when the world didn’t end. She was also seven months pregnant and still unmarried, much to the consternation of her uptight, by-the-book brother.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>When I first heard about Vanessa I only knew her name and that she was Hermann's next of kin so I assumed she was his sister. This is the ficlet that resulted from that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Vanessa Gottlieb was 30 years old when the world didn't end. She was also seven months pregnant and still unmarried, much to the consternation of her uptight, by-the-book brother. Every time she talked to him Hermann asked if Leon had proposed yet and she had to explain again that just because she was pregnant didn't mean they needed to get married.

“And if the world is ending soon, what does it matter anyway?” She said down the phone. Okay, so it may have been slightly closer to screeching but she felt no-one would blame her.

“Vanessa.” He was using that voice, the one he’d always used when they were kids when he thought she was being irrational. “It is not the end of the world.”

“No, it’s just a double kaiju event happening within the week!”

“The Marshall has a plan-” In the background Vanessa could hear some calling Hermann’s name in a slightly frantic American accent. “I'm sorry, Vanessa. I have to go.” And then the phone had gone dead.

That had been the last she’d heard from him until the news broadcast. The live feed from Hong Kong was beamed all over the world, it was on every station. And right there, standing behind Hercules Hanson and Mako Mori and Raleigh Beckett was her brother. She paused the feed, playing over again for the twentieth time since victory had been announced, as she once again tried to dial his mobile number. He was standing in the group slightly awkwardly, leaning on his cane, and it wasn't the space he’d managed to put between the rest of the crowd and himself that surprised her. It was the complete lack of space between him and the short guy with the glasses and the torn up leather jacket.

“Vanessa!” She fumbled the phone and almost dropped it.

“Hermann?” The background noise from the other end of the phone was immense and Hermann didn’t sound quite like himself. “Is that you, are you alright?”

“Who else would it be?” In the background that same voice from a week before called out Hermann’s name again “ _Hermann, come on. You’re missing the best bit. Mako’s about to beat the shit out of him._ ” Hermann actually laughed down the phone, a sound Vanessa hadn't heard in far too long. “Everything’s fine. I’ll call you back later, okay?” 

“ _Hermann._ ” This time the voice was closer, so loud it was almost as if the other man was leaning over Hermann’s shoulder to talk into the phone. The wheedling tone in the voice combined with the mental image shocked Vanessa enough that all she could say was “Okay,” in a stunned voice.

“Wonderful, goodbye.” The line went dead and all she could do was pull the phone away from her ear and stare at it.

Was Hermann _drunk?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may write more of this fic as a Newton-meets-Hermann's-sister story but I wasn't sure how this interpretation of Vanessa would be received so I've left it at this for now.


	2. all seeing, all knowing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanessa, meet Newton.

It was Leon who suggested they fly out to Hong Kong to find out what on Earth was going on with her brother. Hermann had called her back the next morning to give her the inside story on the destruction of the breach. He’d seemed mostly like his old self, if rather happier than she was used to hearing him, but his attention hadn’t seemed to be on the conversation. Every so often he’d trail off as if distracted by something else and his sarcasm level seemed to have been dialled down by about half. Maybe saving the world would do that to a person but it was still creeping her out.

When she rung him to tell him the good news though, he’d been predictably disapproving. 

“What? No, you can’t fly. You’re seven months pregnant.”

“Yes, I’m pregnant.” Vanessa rolled her eyes even though he couldn’t see her. “Just pregnant. It’s not like that’s going to cause me to explode at high altitude.”

“And what if the baby comes while you’re in the air?” There he went with the voice again, thinking she was being irrational

“Two months early? It won’t happen, stop worrying. I talked to my doctor and I’m perfectly fine to fly.”

“It is illogical to take the risk.” She grinned at thin air, that sound more like the Hermann she knew.

“Pregnant lady, remember? Pregnancy hormones and logic do not mix. You’re not going to win this Hermann, just give it up.”

There was a defeated sigh from the other end of the phone, “Fine. When does your flight arrive?”

* * *

In a room at the Shatterdome that Hermann had wrangled out of Hansen with nothing more than a slightly baffled look in return, Leon put away their stuff as Vanessa watched with a proprietorial eye.

“I still do not understand why you felt the need to come all the way to Hong Kong.” Hermann stood awkwardly in the middle of their room, radiating discomfort.

“Well, my favourite brother decided to help save the world without telling me, so-”

Hermann interrupted her with a huff. “I’m your only brother.”

“ _So,_ I felt it prudent-” This time she was interrupted by a familiar looking man poking his head around the open door. 

“Hermann, you in here? I heard from Stamford- Oh,” The man stopped hanging off the door frame and shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, “Sorry, I didn’t realise you had guests.”

In a matter of moments Vanessa had noticed three things. First, that the man had tensed up as soon as he saw her and was even now giving her a rather suspicious look, though he had seemed to relax slightly after catching sight of Leon. Second, that Hermann’s perpetual scowl suddenly looked forced and was that actually a smile trying to appear? And third, that the man didn’t just look familiar, he sounded familiar too.

“Oh, it’s you!” She exclaimed, “The voice in the background, on the phone.”

Confusion replaced suspicion and Hermann lifted his eyes heaven-wards as if asking for patience.

“Please excuse her, she has no brain to mouth filter. Much like you actually.” Hermann turned to speak to the other man. “Newton, This is my sister Dr. Vanessa Gottlieb.” He gestured at her.

The change that came over the other man, Newton, when Hermann said the word ‘sister’ was amazing. The tension dropped off his shoulders entirely and suddenly he was like an excited toddler, bouncing into the room and offering a hand for her to shake.

Hermann continued before Vanessa could get out more than a ‘nice to meet you’, “Her partner, Captain Leon Brandt, GAF.”

“A pleasure.” Leon said as he reached out to shake hands with Newton as well and Vanessa saw Newton do a slight double take at the thick German accent.

“And their as yet unnamed offspring. Vanessa, Leon. Dr. Newton Gieszler.” Hermann gestured at Newton, “My colleague in the research department.” 

Vanessa grinned at Hermann’s inclusion of the baby, even though she knew he was just using it as another opportunity to poke at the fact that she’d refused to find out the sex of the child before it was born. She rested a hand on her swollen stomach.

“We’re just going with ‘the sprog’ at the moment. Or sometimes ‘the parasite’ depending on how much he or she is annoying me at any given time.”

“Well, it’s great to meet you. All of you. I didn’t even know Hermann had a sister, let alone one with a sense of humour.” Newton grinned widely at her.

Vanessa’s answering grin stuttered slightly as he spoke, that had sounded strangely flirty. Then she noticed the way his eyes kept darting sideways to look at Hermann and the eyeroll that his observation had provoked.

Ohh, Vanessa exchange a quick knowing glance with Leon, so that was what was going on. Wow, Hermann was a lucky guy. If she hadn’t been so ridiculously, stupidly in love with Leon, Vanessa would have happily taken the first opportunity to climb Newton like a tree. Albeit a short tree. She wondered if Hermann realised. He’d always been kind of oblivious to that sort of thing.

Unaware of his sister’s revelation, Hermann had turned his attention even more firmly onto Newton. 

“You were saying something about Stamford?”

“Huh? Oh yeah.” Newton’s arms went flying as turned both back towards Hermann and back onto his original topic. Vanessa got the feeling gestures were an important part of Newton’s vocabulary. “They definitely want to be part of our lecture circuit. _And_ they asked if we had any plans for after tour is finished. So that’s another possible job offer in the bag.”

“That’s wonderful, Newton. But don’t you have Kaiju parts to be packing for transit?” Newton deflated and Vanessa, flashing back to her teenage years, suppressed the urge to slap Hermann upside the head.

“Uh, yeah, sure.” He waved at Vanessa and Leon as he backed out of the room. “I’ll, uh, see you at dinner?” Newton’s voice wavered on that sentence as if he didn’t know whether it should be a question or not. Judging by the frown it caused to grace Hermann’s features, he didn’t think it should be one.

“Of course.”

“Great.” Newton grinned at them all and then launched himself out of the room with a grip on the doorframe and another wave.

“Soooo…” Hermann’s shoulders stiffened as Vanessa deliberately dragged out the syllable. There were so many things she could ask right then. About Newton and the way they acted around each other, about why he’d sent Newton away, about how Newton had found them in the first place but she resisted. There’d be time for that later after she’d collected some more data. For now she’d let him off the hook… “Lecture tour?” …Mostly.

* * *

On the slightly maze-like walk to dinner later, Vanessa dropped back behind Hermann so she could stare at his back and have a moment to think.

“You’ve got that look on your face.” Leon said quietly next to her ear.

Vanessa jumped slightly and jerked her head round to look at him. “Huh? What look?”

“The one that I’m glad isn’t directed at me.”

* * *

Dinner was…illuminating. 

Five years younger than her brother, Vanessa had only been a child while Hermann was doing his best to ignore the onset of puberty, but she’d been a highly precocious child. In other words she knew the subtle and not so subtle signs to look for when Hermann had a crush on someone.

Actually in this case crush might not be strong enough wording.

The first thing she noticed was that after Newton left, Hermann started getting…twitchy. It was the only word for it. He couldn’t seem to stand still, kept making movements towards the door as if he wanted to follow Newton to wherever it was he’d gone. For the first time Vanessa began to think that maybe she shouldn’t have come to Hong Kong. Maybe she was just in the way.

It had always been like that with Hermann. Growing up they’d both been smart enough to be graded up away from their year group in school, even though the move to England had set them both back. But Vanessa had taken after their mother more than their father; she’d been a cute, happy kid and she’d always been able to make friends with her older yearmates, even if they didn’t really treat her like an equal. It wasn’t like that for Hermann, he’d never been able to make friends easily, let alone romantic attachments. As they grew up and the five year age gap became less and less important he’d become more and more paranoid about letting her be around the few friends he did make, especially if he had a crush on one of them. He’d always been scared that they’d like her better.

Now, she sat at one of the mess hall tables watching Hermann and Newton, or Newt as he’d insisted she call him, in fascinated amusement. And she was sure she could reassure Hermann with some certainty that that wasn’t about to happen any time soon.

She and Leon were sat at the same table as Hermann and Newt but you wouldn’t think so judging by the attention they were paying to each other. They bickered like they’d been arguing about the same things for years on end, countering each others arguments before they’d even finished saying them. She recognised in Newt’s fond smile her own delight at winding Hermann up just to listen to him rant. The back and forth, push and pull as they demanded each others attention knowing they would get it was a joy to watch for Vanessa. For once in his life Hermann had found someone who could keep up with him and give back as good as he got.

Now it was up to Vanessa to make sure Hermann got to keep him.


End file.
